Sunday, November 11, 2012

Kolkata Style Chilli chicken -- the way Ma-in law makes it

Phewww...the last two weeks have been a tough week for folks in my part of the world as we are still reeling in the aftermath of the hurricane that made a landfall about 80 miles from my home. We felt the power of nature as huge gusts of wind rattled windows, my neighbor's tall willow tree swayed and finally fell, fences flew around like dry leaves in my front yard and we lost power.

People have lost homes and much more and so it doesn't sound right for me to start cribbing about my loss of power for several days. I guess the power became more of a problem since no one here has a backup power source and steady supply of electricity and water is taken as granted.Schools were off, traffic signals refused to work, most businesses, stores, including gas stations were unable to operate for the first couple of days.

The kids were the ones who made most of this situation though. They made up games to play by the flashlight, had many fun sleepovers, spent two happy days with an aunt which would normally have not happened during school week and lived life beyond the usual routine.

And it is in this chaos that I found many reasons to celebrate. That we were safe. That we had food . That we have great friends to tide us through the powerless days. That we got back power in time for election. That Little Sis can now clean her own bum.... Yes, yes that last one took me by so much surprise and admiration for LS.

She is the proverbial second child, the one whose potty training just happened without my breaking my head because I waited and waited until she was ready, the one whose reading or writing I don't worry about much as I have learned that a child attending a school will eventually do those, the one who eats more candy that her sister did at this age and I just give in tired of picking up any more battles, the one who is still the baby and gets away with a lot of tantrums I wouldn't have allowed otherwise. So the fact that LS cleans her own bum at school made me really proud. At home though she refuses to do that job. Yet.

She also likes "jhaal chicken" aka "spicy hot chicken". Big Sis also likes "jhaal chicken". So once we got back power "chili chicken" and fried rice was made for dinner. Indian Style Chinese Chilli Chicken is a hot favorite of almost every Chicken eating Indian I have ever met. The first time I had a hot, hot Indian style Chinese chilli chicken was many many years ago as a second grader at a small restaurant in the mountain town of Kalimpong. I knew very less about China at that time (not that I know much now) but my respect for the country had gone up just because of this single dish. I imagined a country where people ate Hakka Noodles, Chilli Chicken and Manchurian Fried Rice non stop for breakfast, lunch and dinner. What is not to respect.

Nowadays every time I make this Chi-ll-i Chicken, I feel very very sorry for the Chinese. I mean here I am getting annoyed if someone makes alu posto in olive oil and here is the poor Chinese who is getting credited for a dish that has nothing, nothing except Dark Soy sauce as the Oriental ingredient. That is if I am in the dark about Huen Tsang's love for loads of green chilli and hot spicy chicken.

With due apologies to the Chinese here is my Ma-in-law's version of the Indian Chilli Chicken. Cook it, enjoy it and never forget it.

Ma-in-law's Chilli Chicken

In a mortar pound4 clove of garlic4 green chili
to make a paste

Marinate 1-- 1.5 lb chicken cut in small pieces withgarlic+chili paste1 tsp soy sauce1 tsp White Vinegar
and salt for an hour or half. If you can cut the chicken in 1" pieces it is best

When you are ready to cook add1 beaten egg& 1 tbsp of Corn flour to the chicken pieces and combine

Heat Oil in a wok or kadhai or a saute pan. Oil should be enough for frying.

Add the chicken pieces in a single layer and fry till they are golden brown. Remove the lightly fried chicken pieces and keep aside. The fried chicken will be ready to eat.

Usually the remaining oil will be too much for the gravy so take out most of it and use 2tbsp of it for the next steps.
To the oil, add 1 clove of garlic finely minced. Add 4 green chili chopped in rounds

In about 3/4th cup of warm water mix 2 tbsp corn starch and make a smooth mix. Add this to above and mix well.

When the gravy starts simmering add the fried chicken pieces & fry at medium high for couple more minutes combining the sauce and veggies till chicken is totally done and the gravy is thick and clinging.

Garnish with chopped spring onions if you have those and serve with Noodles or Fried rice

Chinese Style Fried Rice

Wash 2 cups of rice in water and let it soak for 10 mins. Cook rice in enough salted water. Once the rice is cooked drain in a colander.

Now heat Oil in a wok. You can use the oil that you have remaining from making the chilli chicken.

To the hot oil add 2 cloves of minced garlic and some black or white pepper powder. Follow with finely chopped carrots and green peas. Add some soy sauce, salt to taste and cover and cook till veggies are done. Now add the cooked rice gradually tossing it with the veggies and sauce. Add little more oil if necessary. Finish adding all the cooked rice tossing so that all the rice is coated with the sauce and oil. Garnish with spring onion.

29 comments:

Hi, I read your blog often - as an English guy, it is really nice to read so much about Bengali cooking, some of the nicest food in the world.I also cook a lot of Chinese food in my spare time, trying to learn how Chinese people cook, and this is really close (except maybe the sliced onion), so don't feel too sorry for the Chinese... :-)The vinegar is a nice touch, especially if you found Chinese rice vinegar in the shop (in the UK it is in most big shops these days), and you could try adding some finely chopped ginger along with the garlic if you like to try...Hope you like my suggestion, and thank you for sharing.

Thanks so much Jackson for your kind words. India has whole array of Chinese dishes which have been Indian-ized :) and that is the taste we are used to.The Chinese dishes here in the US were quite the shocker initially.

Living without power for several days is difficult to say the least. I mean, I have an electric stove so I couldn't so much as heat a cup of water if that happened here. I'm glad you rallied together and came through fine! And that right there is a big milestone for LS- she's growing up fast, eh?

I've seen olive oil creations in Chinese restaurants too - the latest as recently as yesterday. To justify its presence in a Chinese restaurant, it was in some sort of red sauce. All the veg dishes were swimming in thick, viscous sauce and all of them had broccoli and zucchini in them!

Good to read you again! It is nice to read about the fun side you picked up from recent tough days.Congrats and big hugs for LS! Big pat on your back for being a chilled out mum! It is really hard you know as being one myself I know that keeping your cool as a mom is much more difficult than showing the stress out!

Chandrima, I am not really a chilled out Mum. It is just that I tend to be stricter with the first born and then go experimental with the second. I guess because I see that all the issues I have with BS eventually does not matter in the course of few months or years as they grow up. Like say I would be on top of reading for BS and she is good at it but now I realize it is okay if you read at 5 instead of at 4 and it is not really a big thing to worry about.That does not make me worry less about BS though, I am not chilled about her !!

Congrats to LS and to u - i can feel how u have felt! And I can also imagine how u celebrated the cooking when the power finally arrived! here we believe in back up for everything - for traffic signal we have traffic police, we urban ppl mostly have power back up and we also have regular reasons to test them on live! so it is diff for us here to realize how was the situation actually there. personally i remember ayla 2 yrs back. we hardly gave much importance initially - i sent my son (then 4) to the summer camp. when i picked him up, it was raining. when we rchd home, it was really difficult to get down fm the car. finally the storm arrived. i big tree in front of our house was having a simple harmonic motion - i just cant forget the scene! luckily that tree is still there. I pray such situation does not occur to u any more in life dear!

All a matter of perspective, na? If there wasn't worse devastation elsewhere, the power outage would have been more intolerable. Glad you all are ok. My friends in Bridgewater are now on day 13 without power. Stay safe and a very happy Diwali to you all. A big YAY for LS!

I absolutely love your dishes. Whenever I miss bengali cooking or am looking for a recipe, I stop by your site for the perfect recipe and it turns out exactly like the one I had been craving for. Just one question: Is there any particular brand of soy sauce to use for making chilli chiken? I have noticed in the past that dark vs light soy and specific brands make a difference in the taste. Vinegar brand too please? Thank you and please continue with this awesome blog.

However there is this peculiar thing which happens with me - I don't get the taste, aroma of the food I cook if consumed immediately after cooking. Say cooked in the evening by 8 and consumed at 9 - just like with this chilly chicken last night! But on the next day ( or even next bala) I find is super tasty ( if at all it is :) )...again just like this dish which I just had for lunch and landed here...

BTW my hubby was repeatedly saying from last night that it was super yummy...he just gave me a call now, after having is lunch, to say the same again!

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Predominantly a Bong, who loves being a Mom and loves to cook among other things for the li'l one and the big ones.She loves to write too and you will find her food spiced up with stories. Mainly a collection of Bengali Recipes with other kinds thrown in, in good measure. A Snapshot of Bengali Cuisine